Petersburg D-Day vet honored by French

Tuesday

Apr 20, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 17, 2014 at 4:38 PM

PETERSBURG - Edward Farley says he was as surprised as anyone when he received a letter earlier this year from the French embassy in Washington, D.C. The letter invited Farley to a special ceremony March 10 where he and about 40 other men in their late 8

PETERSBURG - Edward Farley says he was as surprised as anyone when he received a letter earlier this year from the French embassy in Washington, D.C. The letter invited Farley to a special ceremony March 10 where he and about 40 other men in their late 80s and early 90s received the French Medal of Honor.

"I was the youngest one there," said Farley, an 85-year-old World War II and Korean War veteran.

Farley earned the French Medal of Honor - an award started in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte - for his service during World War II, specifically on June 7, 1944. "It was the day after D-Day," Farley said.

Farley was assigned to the 463rd Amphibious Truck Company. As a part of that unit, he learned to drive a DUKW (prounounced duck). The DUKW was an amphibious version of the 2 1/2 ton General Motors cargo truck and was used to deliver supplies from ships to the shore.

At the Army Quartermaster Museum on Fort Lee, a DUKW is on display. Farley has a picture of the truck-boat hybrid in his home. "That's mine," he says with pride pointing to the unit identification on the front window of the vehicle. The stenciled white letters identify it as being from the 463rd Amphibious Truck Company.

Farley said that he drove the half-truck-half-boat vehicle back and forth from ships in the English Channel to Omaha Beach.

"I was on that beach from June 7, 1944, until October when we got orders to move further inland and went on to Le Harve [France]," Farley said. While in Le Harve, Farley paid the equivalent of about 50 cents to use a photo booth. The picture that was taken, a copy of which hangs on his living room wall, is the only picture he had taken while overseas. "That's the only one I have," Farley says with a smile - just like the one in the photo.

At the ceremony in Washington, Farley was one of the few Army veterans. "I met some Navy guys," Farley said. "Most of the others were sailors. But meeting those other veterans, it made me feel a little sad because of how old some of them are. We're all old."

But receiving the medal - a red ribbon with a medal hanging at the bottom - Farley says was "naturally a high honor."

Receiving the medal also was a surprise.

"Sixty-five years have gone by, so I was kind of surprised that they thought about me," Farley said. He added that it's especially an honor because each day "about 1,000 of us World War II vets die."

Surviving the invasion of Normandy, Farley beat many of the odds.

"There was just so much going on," Farley said in an interview with The Progress-Index three years ago. "There were so many dead bodies there on the beach. So many young boys. I hate to talk about that."

That first night Farley had to stay in a foxhole on the beach. He said that it was a difficult night's sleep.

"The next day I was joined up by the rest of my company and I was told that there had been 2,000 men killed the day before," Farley said. Recently Farley said that as far as he knows he's the only one from his platoon still alive. "There was a tall cliff overlooking the beach and there had been so many shot from up on that cliff while they were getting on the beach."

Farley said it wasn't until three days later that he first was able to start driving from the beach to the ships at sea and bringing back supplies.

"At first all they had us bringing back was bullets," Farley said.

"The real heroes are still on that beach today. The real heroes gave their lives," Farley said.

- F.M. Wiggins may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 3254 or fwiggins@progress-index.com.

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